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8/07/2017

Mishnayot Kilayim features many instances where the
proximity of one species to another in a field is crucial to establishing the
Halacha . Diagrams are most helpful in understanding these spatial
relationships. In fact, The Rambam in his Perush HaMishnayot on Kilayim
includes over 25 diagrams, 11 in the 3rd Perek alone. I would like
to focus on one of the Rambam’s diagrams and show how it changed from the time it was penned by the Rambam
himself until the diagram we have today in our printed editions. It can be
argued that our present diagram might be more “correct” than what the Rambam
himself drew, but it begs the question of how much leeway there is in trying to
change what the Rambam created. Certainly the same liberties would not be taken
with his words.

The Mishneh deals with an old vineyard farming technique called
“הברכה”. Basically one takes a branch of a vine, bends
it into the ground and then takes the other head of the vine out of the ground
in another place from where it will grow a new vine. This affects what seeds
which you are allowed to plant near the “new” vine. The final part of the
Mishneh deals with a vine which is bent down to form a knee-like point which is
called anארכובה. The Mishneh tells us that in the case involving an ארכובהwe measure ( how much space needed to work around it) only from
the second root, i.e.,the root of the new vine. As a point of reference,
Jastrow explains an ארכובה as “that part of the vine which is bent down and laid in the
ground to rise at another place.”

Rambam first explains what is an
שבגפןארכובה.

והארכובה של גפן צורתה כך

The Rambam continues as follows

“וימדוד עבודתה שהיא ו׳ טפחים מעיקר השני שנראת הגפן יוצאת משם..... “

You should measure the work
area as it regards Kilayim around the second root (עיקר השני)
and not the original root (עיקר הראשון) (unless the first root is uncovered.)

You will
notice that the Rambam does not use any words to describe what an ארכובה looks like, only
the words צורתה כך and a diagram.

On the left side of the diagram it says “עיקר ראשון”, meaning the roots of the mother vine.
The bend is known as the ארכובה, which leads into the "עיקר שני" and rises up to the new גפן. It seems from this
diagram that the bend takes place underground as it is on the same level as the
roots of the new vine. You do not get the feeling that the branch which comes
from the first vine is bent downwards in any way before forming the second
vine. Also, you do not get a picture of the first vine ever rising from the
ground as the second.

We have a similar diagram in a very early manuscript of the
Peirush Mishnayot written in 1221-1222 by Shlomo
Halevi, son of Shmuel Hadayan ben Saadyah. It was most likely copied
from the original.

We find a significant change in the following manuscript as
the bend is not on the same level as the second root. It seems as if the branch
of the first vine is out of the ground, then bent downwards underground where
the second root then develops and grows. This is also a Hebrew translation of
the Rambam’s words.

This may have been the manuscript used for the first printed
edition of the Rambam’s Peirush HaMishnayot in Napoli 1492

Courtesy of hebrewbooks.org

עיקר ‘ ארכובעיקר שניגפן

For approximately
200 years of printed editions starting from Bomberg in 1521 ( shown below),
this and other diagrams went missing. As you can see on the bottom left, there
is a space left for a diagram, but no diagram.

Included in this edition on this Mishneh is a diagram that
shows the beginning of the bend as a straight line going from the עיקר ראשון to the עיקר שני, indicating that the new branch which originated from
first vine was never out of the ground. In footnote 5 he attributes the source
to Ktiv Yad Oxford. Yet in this same footnote he includes a diagram from his
grandfather יחיא בן סלימאן קאפח written in 1925, which shows the branch
from the first vine rising out of the ground and then bending downwards back
into the ground where the עיקר שני takes root. Even though he had the Ktav Yad of the Rambam
himself, he writes that he still prefers the diagram of his grandfather showing
the bend angling downwards.

The first time
after Napoli 1492 that a diagram was included in a printed edition was in
Frankfurt a/m 1722 and looked like this. As you can see we now have a picture
of the two vines and also that the branch from the first vine is bent downwards
before it goes back into the earth. In this diagram the first vine is now on
the right.

In the Vilna Shas and most modern print editions it looks
like this with the right side being the original vine. This illustration even
tries to show grapes growing on the vines.

Finally, I have a copy of Mishnayot Zeraim printed in
Amsterdam by Emanuel Benveniste in 1645. As expected, the printer left blank
spaces where diagrams were to be placed. In this case, the owner of the book
Rav Avraham Reggio (1755-1846) drew in many of the diagrams himself. Here is
what he drew on our Mishneh. It is quite clear that the branch which started
the second vine was first out of the ground and then bent downwards into the
ground.